Kevin M. Weeks

Kevin M. Weeks is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the UNC School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research focuses on developing chemistry-based technologies to analyze RNA structures and their roles in gene regulation and drug discovery.

• PhD in Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The Weeks Lab specializes in creating "molecular microscopes" such as SHAPE, mutational profiling (MaP), and single-molecule correlated chemical probing (smCCP). These tools enable high-resolution mapping of RNA secondary and tertiary structures in cells, revealing how RNA folding governs biological regulatory networks and facilitates RNA-targeted drug development. The lab's work emphasizes simplicity in technology design to ensure robustness and broad adoption, with applications spanning virology, genomics, and therapeutic innovation.

Kevin M. Weeks has received prestigious accolades including:

• NIH EUREKA Award
• NSF CAREER Award
• Searle Scholar Award in the Biomedical Sciences
• Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge
• Visiting Scholar at the National Institutes of Health
• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

His lab has mentored graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who have secured competitive fellowships from the American Cancer Society, NIH, and Human Frontiers Program. The Weeks Lab continues to lead in RNA biology, with a focus on identifying clefts and pockets in complex RNA structures for small-molecule targeting, positioning RNA-directed therapies as a transformative approach in medicine.